Climate education effort targets regional leaders

Undeterred, Boudrias and his colleagues are pushing ahead on the premise that scientists aren’t necessarily the best communicators, and that may contribute to public uncertainty about basic elements of climate research. Another challenge is that it can take years for scientific advances to make their way into textbooks, undermining science literacy.

Such concerns prompted Boudrias to join USD’s Energy Policy Initiatives Center and USD science professor John Yin in seeking the federal funds. Their partnership eventually expanded across the region. Today it is among 15 groups — and the only one focused on California — selected by the NSF in 2010 to reshape the public dialogue on an issue that incites passions among liberals and conservatives despite limited public understanding about the foundational research. Initiatives elsewhere target everyone from TV meteorologists to farmers in the Great Plains.

It’s part of a larger NSF push to prepare a new generation of climate scientists and help residents make smart choices about minimizing the damage done by climate change to agriculture, forests, public health and other sectors.

Rather than advocating for specific behavior changes, foundation officials said their goal is to boost understanding about climate science and how changes are playing out.

“We want to prepare individuals and their communities to make their own evidence-based decisions,” Jill Karsten, a program director at NSF, said when the program launched.

Boudrias said the alliance isn’t marketing climate change — though any such perceptions could be a concern as social scientists at Cal State San Marcos test the effectiveness of different presentations on target audiences. They are evaluating what types of people — such as scientists, community leaders or grandparents — and topics — such as water, wildfire and sea level rise — resonate most with nonscientists.

“The whole goal of our program is to try to be presenting the science in a fair, objective and neutral way by determining who is the best messenger and in some ways what the best message is,” Boudrias said. “What we are trying to find out is if I am just going to show you some data and you are the leader of the real estate board in San Diego, is it best for me as a scientist to present it to you? Is it best for someone who is a real estate leader and realizes it is important to understand these impacts? Or is better for an ordinary citizen, one of your constituents?”

In addition, Boudrias said it’s important for scientists to explain how they get their data and the difference between observations and models.

“There is disconnect in the general public … that doesn’t quite understand the process of science,” Boudrias said. “People view science as an absolute, and it’s not. It’s a process.”

Polling released by the partnership in February show the majority of San Diego County residents understand some basic elements of climate science, believe climate change is happening and are concerned about its effects.

But it also shows a gap in knowledge. For instance, 59 percent of the 1,011 respondents were confident that reducing water use can reduce energy use — what scientists consider a basic tenet.

Such responses suggest to Boudrias that even a scientifically savvy region such as San Diego has a long way to go when it comes to mastering climate science, let alone making informed decisions about how to react.